[CaptainJSparrow]

I remember back before there were Link Lists we all had websites full of free pictures that just dominated the serps (at first Yahoo and a few others, then Google when they came about) and we sent the traffic to the pay sites, usually on a pre-paid basis. The pay sites did not have the technology to see if the traffic was converting, they could just look at raw clicks coming in from your website.

Then technology advanced, and Google took over the search part of the net and tracking software advanced where pay sites could track where the sales came from.

I am not sure who came up with the concept of a Link List originally. I do remember that LL's were popular when the technology was not there to easily display movies on the internet. I suspect that the LL concept was created as a way to easily get a lot of back links for the purpose of getting high placements in Google. This was back when Google only valued gross back links without having the ability to value them accordingly. Hence, a lot of back links (even from new pages) got you top placements on Google which got you the absolute best traffic on the internet.

Back then, the Link List owners did not want to create the content (which was picture galleries at the time) they just wanted to evaluate submissions and decide which galleries they would display. Of course, LL owners were all about aggressively exchanging links because they knew that the more links that they developed, the more search engine traffic their site got.

The folks that created the "free" sites just wanted to create the galleries and get the instant hit of search engine traffic from the various lists that they submitted to. They traded links too, especially on their hubs, and some of them developed Link Lists too. At some point, the ability to display very short movies was created and some folks started submitting movie clips galleries in addition to picture galleries.

TGP's were around back then but their traffic was mostly traded and not considered valuable. The Link Lists search engine traffic converted great though!

Then technology advanced again and tube sites were created. We all hated the first tube sites because they had stolen content and they took over the search engines. Well, now-a-days tube sites rule the search engines. They do not have to have stolen content because most of the good pay sites offer free videos for the tube sites to use to promote the pay sites.

The ability for any webmaster to easily create a tube site with the actual content that the surfer is wanting combined with the fact that Google has used penalties to get rid of the middleman, in this instance Link Lists, would suggest that trying to make Link Lists work again is comparable to trying to convince people to use 8 tracks instead of cd's or digital music options such as their phones, ipods, etc.

Link Lists were a middle man. They did well because the back links and all of the text on the pages got them to the top of Google. Technology has advanced. Google has a penalty in place for link schemes and I dare say that every Link List has that penalty and every site linking (from numerous pages) to, or getting links from, a Link List has that penalty.

I am not understanding why folks say that tube sites do not have good traffic and/or that they do not convert. As an example, one of my tubes sent 149,709 uniques to clients and made 106 sales (73 of which were mobile sales) over the last 6 days. Not horrible traffic or sales....matter of fact, not that far off what the old Link Lists used to do.

Everyone wants search engine traffic, specifically Google.

Now-a-days Google has the technology in place to see what a surfer does when he or she3 comes to your website. The engines can tell how many pages were viewed, how long the surfer stayed on your site, and whether he or she was satisfied that their search delivered what they were looking for.

Google also places value on back links. Google looks at what sites your site links with. They are great at finding link schemes and penalizing them. Hence, I just can not envision a way that Link Lists can get past all of this and get decent traffic from the search engines to send to the submitters sites.